Vines Art Festival hosts Multitides—a site-collaborative tidal walk at Spanish Banks, August 15 to 18

The self-guided stroll at Spanish Banks’ tidal flats comes with an eight-page zine

Vines Art Festival presents Multitides—a site collaborative tidal walk on August 15 from 8:50 am to 10:50 am; August 16 from 9:40 am to 11:40 am; August 17 from 10:40 am to 12:40 pm; and August 18 from 12:30 pm to 2:30 pm

THE TIDAL FLATS of Spanish Banks are the stage for a Vines Art Festival offering called Multitides—a site collaborative tidal walk taking place from August 15 to 18.

Created by Paula Viitanen in collaboration with mechatronics engineer Juan Aldazosa, visual artist Liz Wurzinger, and composer Elliot Vaughan, the self-guided stroll takes place at low tide each day, beginning at a site-responsive installation where participants receive a guidebook leading them into the intertidal zone.

The installation will be in place just outside of the Spanish Banks West concession; measuring approximately eight feet by eight feet, it is designed as a “site-responsive portal or doorway”, Viitanen tells Stir.

“Participants are invited to step through it at the beginning of their tidal walk,” says Viitanen, who has a degree in industrial joinery and a BFA in theatre: production and design. “Our exploration focuses on how a frame or portal might alter one’s awareness and presence in a location. The installation features site-responsive elements, including kinetic parts that react to local weather conditions such as wind and rain and the rising tidal waters.”

Audiences will also be given a guidebook in the form of an eight-page zine. “When unfolded, it reveals a poster-sized map of the tidal flats, showcasing observations and prompts related to the natural features of the area,” Viitanen says. “This guide encourages exploration of the site’s existing dynamics.”

In the booklet, there will be a QR code to a site-specific composition by Vaughan. “The sound will be generated real time based on an algorithm Vaughan created using six different earth and moon cycles turned into oscillators,” Viitanen says.

Vines Art Festival continues to August 17.

Featured

Gail Johnson

Gail Johnson is cofounder of Stir. She is a Vancouver-based journalist who has earned local and national nominations and awards for her work. She is a certified Gladue Report writer via Indigenous Perspectives Society in partnership with Royal Roads University and is a member of a judging panel for top Vancouver restaurants.

Articles

Actor-playwright Faly Mevamanana embraces the weird in The Baking Show Show: The Play

In this left-field comedy, the obsessive lead character is driven by the same perfectionism that her creator has learned to leave aside in life

Vancouver Symphony Orchestra announces first European tour in April

Stops include a three-night residency at Austria’s Salzburg Easter Festival, as well as Croatia, Slovenia, Liechtenstein, and Germany

Dance review: Coregulation and calm, as Action at a Distance’s WAIL sculpts vocal sound and movement

In this PuSh Fest, Music on Main, and Dance Centre premiere, humming songs, whispered words, and hypnotic movement bring a sense of serenity and connection to a chaotic world

Rising German piano star Julius Asal makes his Canadian debut with the Vancouver Recital Society, February 8

Among the 28-year-old’s recent achievements is winning the Terence Judd-Hallé Award for young pianists on the cusp of international fame

The Cinematheque spotlights the films of Naruse Mikio with Short Is the Life of a Flower, to February 21

Retrospective closes with the Japanese director’s melancholic final picture, Scattered Clouds

Cosí fan tutte gets a vintage-Canadian refresh under director Robert Herriot at Vancouver Opera

The Winnipeg artist brings experience as a tenor to a Mozart opera reimagined in a 1930s Rockies resort, complete with Mounties and log drivers

In The Brutal Joy, Justine A. Chambers channels the overwhelming beauty of Black living

With staging that evokes a Chicago jazz bar, the Dance Centre and PuSh Festival co-presentation draws on matrilineal fashion and line dancing

Shadbolt Centre hosts Burnaby Lyric Opera’s The Barber of Seville this February

Romance, deception, and mistaken identities abound in Gioachino Rossini’s beloved comic masterpiece

Theatre review: You’re Just a Place That I Know is a moving musical reflection on family and memory

Based on Adrian Glynn McMorran’s album of the same name, the show at the Arts Club’s BMO Theatre Centre is more than just a concert

Theatre review: Comedic snap of Metro Theatre’s Barefoot in the Park gives retro setting a timeless resonance

Sharp dialogue and restless energy, prodded on by the little irritations of married life, result in cozy yet unsettling laughs

Ballet BC highlights masterful choreographers Crystal Pite and Jiří Kylián with INFINITY, February 26 to 28

Program features Pite’s Frontier, a deep dive into the unknown, and Kylián’s 27’52”, an exploration of theoretical elements

Dance review: JEZEBEL challenges the stereotype of the booty-poppin’ backup dancer

In a riveting PuSh Festival and New Works copresentation, Belgium’s Cherish Menzo plays with repetition, chopped-and-screwed music, and flashing dental grillz

Les Furies rolls out the fun in story of small-town derby team, January 28

Visions Ouest screens raucous tale of women ousted from their Quebec rink and ready for revenge, at Alliance Française

Ventriloquist Michael Harrison embraces the magical escapism of puppetry

Ahead of his Anvil Theatre show, the long-time cruise-line performer talks about dispelling childhood fears with lovable characters

Cellist Henry Shapard plays Prokofiev with the VSO at Beethoven’s Eroica, February 20 to 22

Han-Na Chang conducts Beethoven’s revolutionary Third Symphony

Review: Liquid limbs and mesmerizing visual magic at Recirquel’s Paradisum

In DanceHouse and The Cultch co-presentation, the Hungarian company is full of flowing bodies and rippling fabric

Corey Payette spotlights songs from his acclaimed musicals at Closest Thing to Home, January 28

The renowned theatre artist and composer offers a stirring collection of tunes from acclaimed shows such as Children of God and Starwalker

Ghanaian music scholar Kofi Gbolonyo leads upbeat Celebrate Africa! event at BlueShore at CapU, January 30

Long-time UBC and CapU faculty member puts on a show featuring dozens of local musicians, plus vocalists Dawn Pemberton and Khari McClelland

Collaboration opens new sonic horizons for jazz guitarist Jocelyn Gould

The Winnipeg-based artist looks forward to onstage exchanges with diverse musical peers on International Guitar Night

You're the Top! brings the songs of Cole Porter to the Anvil Theatre, February 14

Event hosted by Michael van den Bos features Hollywood film projections and live music by the Laura Crema Sextet

Stir Q&A: Chicago’s Dumb John brings fearless comic energy to Improv Centre showcase The Heat

Troupe members Mike Geraghty and Linda Orr talk early days in punk-rock basements and the power of trust onstage ahead of the five-day international comedy festival

Blackout Art Society’s English looks at language and belonging, January 23 to February 1 at the Firehall

Sanaz Toossi’s play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2023 for its look at four students preparing for the TOEFL

At PuSh, Alan Lake Factori(e)’s mythologically driven Orpheus paints a visceral picture of loss

In the deeply moving production, dancers embody the ancient tale of death and longing by tapping into their own experiences of tragedy

Vancouver New Music hosts Artifacts I: Zero Input Enclosure Movement, February 14

Sonic architecture of Winnipeg’s AO Roberts explores the interplay of performance, installation, and layered auditory experiences

Eastside Arts Society secures funding to purchase its headquarters at 716 East Hastings

Vancouver City Council greenlights $2,665,000 for acquiring the property, with funds from the False Creek Flats Amenity Share Reserve

Folk-rooted string quartet the Fretless finds a voice in singer-songwriter Madeleine Roger

Collaborating with vocalists taught the acclaimed, formerly all-instrumental group new ways of listening and working

UBC Opera performs Leonard Bernstein’s satirical operetta Candide, February 5 to 8

Rarely presented in Vancouver, the production blends musical theatre and opera with a philosophically rooted storyline

Ariel Barnes brings nomadic spirit and intense curiosity to classic and contemporary cello works

The adventurous artist sees his upcoming program with Vetta Chamber Music as a way of expressing music’s power to console and cheer, even in dark times

Ralph Moore Quartet headlines sixth edition of Jazz at the Bolt, February 13 to 15

Hosted by the Cellar Music Group at the Shadbolt Centre, festival opens with a special concert by the Vancouver Jazz Orchestra with Champian Fulton and Klas Lindquist

At the Advance Theatre Festival, Alexandra Lainfiesta uses magic realism to explore the personal sacrifices of immigration

Latinx theatre artist’s debut script unfolds across three worlds: Toronto, Antigua Guatemala, and a realm in which the immigration system functions like a game show